Statements by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary concerning rural Ireland and small farmers were as unacceptable as his recent joke about the Queen.

This was the opinion of Independent MEP Marian Harkin commenting on weekend statements by Michael O’Leary.

“Michael O’Leary as a multi millionaire hobby farmer and with a delusion that rural areas are doing well, is the last person who should be pontificating about the role of small farmers or the areas in which they live”, she said.  The recent report published by the Pat Spillane Chaired Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, while deficient in some respects, at least highlighted the fact that small towns and rural areas were in consistent decline, she said.

“Michael O’Leary’s suggestion that rural areas are doing well and his dismissal of the role of small farmers beggars belief.  His suggestion that they should receive no subsidies from the EU reveals his ignorance of the role played by these, often part time farmers, in sustaining the economic and social fabric of rural areas”, she said.   O’Leary also failed to understand the role of farm subsidies which were vital towards ensuring the quality, traceability and security of food produced in the EU and its affordability for EU consumers.
His comments emphasised the need for a more social Europe and one which would not be dictated by €multimillionaire business people with their unacceptable influence in the political system, Marian Harkin said.

“The most recent record of IDA organised visits for overseas investors once again emphasises the inadequacy of the government’s National Spatial Strategy and its failure to deliver balanced regional development”, she said.  It was the economic contribution of the many smaller farmers and not of the few wealthy hobby farmers which prevented their total devastation. Independent MEP Marian Harkin said.